Did Obama plan to apologize to Japan?

In September 2009, US Ambassador to Japan John Roos reported to the Obama administration that the Japanese government did not think it was a good idea for President Obama to visit Hiroshima to apologize for the US having dropped an atomic bomb on that city, a secret cable published by Wikileaks revealed.

Roos wrote the cable after his August meeting with Vice Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka, reporting to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the Japanese government felt “the idea of President Obama visiting Hiroshima to apologize for the atomic bombing during World War II is a ‘non-starter.’ While a simple visit to Hiroshima without fanfare is sufficiently symbolic to convey the right message, it is premature to include such program in the November visit.”

A senior White House official asserts to ABC News that there was never any plan for the president to apologize for Hiroshima. The cable does not state that the idea was from the U.S. Rather, Roos writes that Yabunaka thought that following President Obama’s call earlier that year for a world free of nuclear weapons, anti-nuclear groups would speculate as to whether he would visit Hiroshima.

Yabunaka recommended that President Obama’s November 2009 visit be focused mostly in Tokyo.

Obama, an apology looking for a place to grovel. He should apologize to America.

Anonymous

Really, why doubt this?
It’s consistent with the apology tour Obama went on in 2009.

With any luck, we’ll be able to apologize for Obama after the 2012 elections.

Anonymous

A bowing U.S. president. I don’t think this is the type of change everyone had in mind.

Anonymous

Barry bows for he know’s not what to do..

jim_m

This goes back to when obama was in his world wide magical apology tour. He was apologizing and bowing to everyone he met. I remember feeling at the time as though the plan was for him to apologize and I recall the outcry of many who thought he would do so. I think that it was this preemptive outcry that stopped him.